Drowning In Air
by Zoquith
Summary: Luna was taken from her family by WICKED and now works for them. After an unusual power cut in the WICKED compound, something in the glade is not right, she must discover what if she wants her family to live. Upon entering the maze she realises the task at hand is proving more difficult than she first thought it would be.
1. 1

1\. The Kidnapping

Their black leather costumes was the thing I remembered best. I never liked the colour black, it seemed too ominous, too deadly. So when three black clad figures advanced towards me that night, I panicked, as you might imagine. I screamed. Loud. Sudden murmuring and hurried footsteps came from across the hall where my parent's bedroom was located. The three figures were nearly upon me, Darth Vader like masks covering their faces, hiding their identity. I'm ashamed to admit I nearly wet myself as the nearest Lord Vader grabbed my arm. After this, I can't remember much. I know just then my parents ran into the room, upon hearing my scream, but it was to no avail. The three black men - with me being dragged alongside - barged straight past my father and mother, as if they were nothing but two annoying flies, and ran down the stairs. They jumped into a strategically parked van, already in gear and zoomed off. At the time, my twelve year old self was quaking with fear, tears flooding down my cheeks, but now I realise that was the best thing that could have happened to me. WICKED were the best thing that could have happened to me.

Ever since I was little I had dreamed about being the hero, saving the world, being celebrated - and maybe even having a holiday named after myself. And now, thanks to WICKED it was all possible.

I was not like the other kids growing up. They went outside with their friends and had fun, I stayed inside to conduct more experiments on my squidgy, plastic 'brain'. On Halloween, they would go egg our teachers' houses, I would try to deduce how much sugar one could eat before developing a brain disorder. I never had many friends, but that was the way I liked it.

Back to WICKED - I loved it there. We were helping create a cure that would eventually save the entirety of mankind.

The world would celebrate me.

The shrill tones of my bedside alarm clock awoke me sharply. Quickly, I slithered out of bed. The cooling water of my shower instantly made me more awake and alert. Noticing it was already 7:23, I hurried to change out of my pyjamas and into my dull, grey work clothes. Breakfast was boring, as per usual. Two slices of toast with butter or jam.

Breakfast was my favourite time of the day, I could relax and decide what aspect of the subjects' killzones to study today. There were 5 people in my work group and we all studied a different types of patterns within the killzone. We were allowed to chose but we mostly did the same sort of thing every day. There were five main types of patterns within the subjects' killzones - happy or excited patterns, sad patterns, worried or anxious patterns, angry patterns and lastly, scared patterns. I usually monitored the sad patterns, as I found them most interesting. We had been working for nearly three years now and we were very close to our end goal.

"Please report to your work stations, it is nearly 800 hours" Echoed the insanely loud loudspeaker. I rose to my feet and started towards the lift.

Pressing the floor twelve button, I leant back against the glass. I was nearing floor ten when the lift stopped suddenly, causing me to be thrown forwards onto the floor. The lights went out simultaneously. It was a power cut. There hadn't ever been a power cut in the WICKED compound before, this was new. I was unsure of what to do, these lifts didn't have an emergency button to press, as nothing was expected to go wrong. Sighing, I realised there was nothing better to do than sit down and wait.

After what had seemed like an eon, the doors were prized open and a man in a white work suit helped me up and out of the lift.

"Sorry about the wait, none of the communication devices are working, we didn't know if anyone was in the lifts," the man began to explain, "all the computers and shizzle are out too."

It took a second or two for his words to sink in. The computers were out too meant nobody had been monitoring the killzone patterns, or the subjects for that matter! Anything could have happened.

"What's the time?" I asked quickly.

The guy glanced at his watch before replying.

"12:56."

Shit. Almost 5 hours! If nothing big had happened it would be okay, but if something had happened in the glade then we would be missing crucial information. It was also greenie day today, and that was when we received the most interesting patterns from the new subject. It was not a good day to miss.

I sighed heavily and turned to follow the man.

A/N Hey :)) this is my first time writing anything like this so please bare with me aha I'm much better at writing discription than this sort of thing so I'm sorry the style is a bit weird and the tenses jump around a bit :(( if anyone might be interested in beta-ing it for me please just send me a message ! Reviews/opinions are welcomed! I'll happily read your stories and review them in return :))


	2. 2

2\. A Problematic Start

There were people running everywhere. The power cut had caused havoc; all our work for the past three years was stored on computers and if that had been lost because of the power cut, I'm not sure what we would do. We would have to restart the Maze Trials with new subjects and all the sacrifices we had made would have been in vain. My communication device vibrated in my hand. The head of our department, Dr Anthony, wanted to see me. This could not be good.

I jogged up the three flights of stairs, not wanting to risk the lift again, and stopped outside his office door. Tentatively, I knocked.

"You may come in, "

I entered and sat down on the chair he gestured at me to sit in. He was a thin, wiry man with grey roots, even though I was sure he couldn't be over 40. His office decorations reflected his personality, dull, grey walls with little to no furniture bar a wooden desk with two seats places either side. One of which I was currently sitting in.

"As you are aware, we recently had a power cut. So far, we're unsure of the cause but recent information indicates the Right Arm tried to cut our power permanently. Obviously, they did not succeed but we must strengthen our connections to ensure it can't happen again."

I nodded, trying to take all the new information in. The Right Arm? That was surprising, they had just started disappearing, I had thought they were finished. The man continued.

"With regard to the disruption the power cut caused, we lost a day's worth of very important patterns. As you know it was greenie day and we have just found out subject A19 has died. We're not sure why or how at the moment and it appears only subject A7 knows. It's crucial the rest of the subjects find out how he died as it will cause killzone patterns that are of great significance to us in the remainder of the gladers' brain."

A19 had died? I couldn't quite remember if that was George or Ben. A7 was Minho, I knew.

"How are we supposed to get Minho to tell the rest of the gladers?" We have no control over their actions, we can only record what they do decide to do. He opened his mouth to speak again but at that moment his CD crackled into life and he waved for me to leave.

I excited the office and found Thomas waiting outside. He worked in a different department to me but we often saw each other at meals and meetings. He was WICKED's favourite, the pet. We were not exactly friends. I shot a glare at him as I walked past and carried on towards the dorms to find Wil to tell him the interesting news I had just been told. Wil was my only friend here, and probably the only friend I had ever had. I spotted him waiting outside my room and headed over to him.

"Hey, were you waiting for me?" I guessed he had been as he was standing outside my door.

"Yeah, Teresa said she needed to speak to you."

"Oh. Okay thanks. I'll go speak to her in a minute, I have something to tell you,"

He raised an eyebrow questioningly.

"They think the Right Arm caused the power to go off, " The shock on his face was obvious. "yeah, and also someone was killed in the Maze today, subject A17 but they don't know how. The gladers don't know either, apart from subject A7."

"Wow, that's big. The Right Arm are back? I didn't think that would happen!" He said, his voice filled with excitement."As well as the death of a glader and they missed all the patterns, this is not a good day for WICKED."

"Haha, no, it's not, is it? Anyway, I'll speak to you later, I need to go see Teresa. Do you have any idea where she is now?"

"Yeah, I think I saw her with Thomas earlier."

"Oh, well she's not with him now. I saw him outside Anthony's office on my way out. He was probably about to be told haw amazing he is and how valuable he is to WICKED."

Wil made a face and shrugged.

"She might be with Rachel if she's not with Thomas then."

"Yeah, I was just thinking that, I'll check now. Thanks Wil!" I walked away towards Rachel's room. After knocking twice the door was opened by Teresa."I heard you wanted to speak to me?" I asked.

She stepped outside and closed the door softly behind her.

"Yeah, " she said in a lowered tone, "I take it you heard about the Right Arm?" she waited for me to not my response before continuing, "I need to know what happened last time, if they're back we need to make a decision!"

Teresa and I were not friends, and I was not about to tell her one of my biggest secrets.

"If you needed to know, you would know. And I've made mine, WICKED is good." I walked off before she could say anything else.

A/N English is not my first language, once again I apologise for grammatical errors/spelling mistakes :)) thanks for reading


	3. 3

3\. News

The power cut was a week ago now and Dr Anthony still didn't know how to find out how subject A17 had died, he had called me to several meetings with various other important members but we still had know idea how to find out. Nothing like this had ever happened before. I was heading towards Chancellor Paige's office, as she had requested to speak to me. I have to admit, I was rather scared. You didn't usually get called to her office unless she had very, very bad news.

As I entered her office I noted her tight face looked even more unimpressed than it usually did.

"You know about the situation with subjects A17 and A7?" She asked, her voice was like a knife, it sliced straight through you.

"I do," I replied.

"Good," A thin smile appeared on her face, one that never reached her iron grey eyes. "Then you'll understand why we must ask you to enter the Maze as next month's ... 'greenie'," She spoke the word 'greenie' with so much contempt, you would believe it was beneath her to utter such a word.

I didn't really register what she had said, I thought I must have heard wrong.

"Pardon?"

She looked impatient but repeated herself anyway,

"You'll understand why we must ask you to enter the Maze as next month's 'greenie',"

My heart leapt with both excitement and fear. I knew what happened to the kids in the maze and there was no way I wanted to go through that, especially as it would mean loosing my memory.

"E ... erm..."

"Rest assured, you will be allowed to keep your memory, you are there to act as a variable not as a subject. You will need to befriend subject A7 (Minho) and find out how subject A17 (George) died. Don't worry, you won't be able to be killed either, you are too valuable for that. You must pretend you have lost your memories just like the rest of them." She seemed to be able to read my mind.

"Oh...erm... yeah okay." I agreed. If I wasn't going to die and I wouldn't lose my memory it seemed okay. Befriending Minho wouldn't be too hard, I and the rest of the team had been studying his brain for years, I probably knew him better than he did himself.

She smiled again, and again it did not reach her eyes.

"Good, I'm glad to hear that. You will go up tomorrow, we do not have enough time to wait another three weeks." She turned her back which was my signal to leave. I was surprised to realise my fingers were shaking and my palms were slightly sticky with sweat.

I decided to tell Wil what was happening then have an early night so I could have a chance to think how I was going to get Minho to tell me what happened to George.

After quickly walking down to my room, I realised as it was work hours Wil would be working right now and unable to talk, so I wrote him a note explaining I would be gone in the morning, and why.

I was scared for the morning, but also excited, this might be my chance to do something good for the world. Without me now, WICKED might not be able to create the cure in time. Resting my head on the pillow, I imagined the many scenarios that could come true tomorrow. I would be the first girl to turn up in group A's Maze, the boys would most likely be extremely confused as to why a girl arrived only one week after the previous greenie. Pretending not to know where I am would be difficult. Well, I'd have to just try my best to be convincing, but for now, I might as well sleep.

A/N I hope you're enjoying it so far :)) There are plenty of plot twists and juicy stuff coming up soon so please carry on reading, do you have any guesses for what's going to happen? Leave me a review hahha thanks


	4. 4

4\. The Maze

A cold, iron fist clenched at my shoulder, forcing me awake. After being dragged out of my warm sheets, I was pulled along behind a doctor wearing a long white lab coat. We entered a room and I wash pushed into a seat, passed some clothes and told to change in the next 10 second or I'd be going to the glade in my PJs. The doctor left them room, closing the door with a loud BANG behind him, I jumped. Casting a glance around the room, I hurriedly pulled on the black, tight fitting trousers and faded grey t-shirt I had been given and waited for the doctor to re-enter. Shortly, he did.

I was once again dragged by my arm along the corridor, as if he thought I was incapable of walking. I decided to voice my opinion on the matter.

"I can walk, you know, on my own,"

The man did not respond in any other way but to walk faster.

A large metal cage came into view, I assumed that was the box I'd make my debut in. I was correct. After being pushed in, the man whispered in my ear.

"Remember, not a word to any of them you work for WICKED. You know what'll happen if you do. "

I nodded and slumped down into a corner of the cage. It started whirring upwards as I heard the man's voice again, this time shouting.

"WICKED is good!"

The cage was moving faster and faster, I grabbed onto the metal grating of the floor in order not to be thrown forward with the sudden change in pace of the cage. After about ten minutes, I found myself becoming slightly giddy. I felt as if I'd throw up the second I reached the glade, something I really didn't want to happen. I needed to make a good first appearance. I tried to decide how to act when I got to the glade, it was going to be difficult pretending to have lost my memory. Before I'd had as much time as I'd liked to plan my arrived, the box juddered to a stop, just as the metal doors were thrown open by subject A12. I still knew most of them only by their numbers and not their names, I'll need to work on that.

The boy jumped down into the box and did a double take.

"You're a ... Girl!" He exclaimed, looking up at the other graders who were hovering over, trying to get a better look.

"And you're a boy," I replied casually, trying to make my voice shake slightly, as if I was trying to cover the fact I was quivering with fear inside. Which I sort of was. Not not fear of the boys though, fear of WICKED.

The boy (I suspected him to be Gally, or maybe Newt) reached out his arm to me. I took it gladly and he helped me up out of the box. The rest of the boys were just staring at me, dumbfounded.

"Where am I? And why are you all staring at me?" I asked. This time I did not authorise the quiver in my voice.

"This is the Glade, we're not sure how we got here, we'll explain everything better later. And we're staring because we haven't had a girl come up before."

"W-What do you mean 'come up'? And why can't I remember anything!?" My voice rose in pitch to a slight shriek.

"Every month someone else is sent up in the box, it's never been a girl before," This time a dark skinned boy, who I knew was Alby, answered."and none of us can remember anything about our past apart from our names, can you remember yours?"

"Oh..." I was lost, and had no idea what to say. "My name's Luna. Why can't you just ... Leave?" I turned my head.

The first boy stepped forward again.

"And how do you propose we do that? See a big green exit sign anywhere? "

He was shushed by Alby, as he put his arm on mine.

"Come with me, I'll show you where you'll be sleeping for now. We'll have to make certain exceptions since you're a girl. For now you can have your own room, I'll take a hammock. "

I was grateful I wouldn't have to sleep with the other boys, that was something I had worried about.

"Thanks." I gave him a small smile, one he did not return. "So ... None of you know how you got here? Do you think someone put you in here for whatever reason?"

He shrugged, "Thinking about why we're here doesn't get us any closer to actually getting out of this shuck place. "

A/N I'm slightly disappointed with the lack of response :(( oh well lol

remember English isn't my first language and I'm looking for a beta reader so I'm very sorry for any grammatical errors, I have read and re read this chapter so hopefully there aren't many. If you notice something that doesn't make sense please drop me a pm or mention it in a review. Thanks!


End file.
